The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, the approaches described in this section may not be prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
TV viewers can record broadcasted TV programs using a videocassette recorder (VCR). As such, A VCR user can record a particular TV program at the time it is broadcasted and play the same recorded TV program at a later time. In order to accomplish this, A VCR changes the electrical signals representing a TV program into magnetic signals and stores the magnetic signals on magnetic tape. The magnetic tape is usually in the form of a videocassette tape inserted into the VCR by the VCR user. When a VCR user decides to play back the TV program, the process is reversed, and the VCR changes the magnetic signals stored on the videocassette tape into electrical signals and sends the electrical signals to a TV set.
With the development of digital technology, VCRs are being replaced by digital video recorders (DVRs). Like a VCR, a DVR records broadcasted TV programs for later playback by changing electrical signals of the TV program into digital information and storing the digital information in a memory device. When the user plays back the recorded TV program, the DVR converts the digital information back to analog signals and sends the signals to the TV set which displays the TV program for the viewer.
DVRs are becoming increasingly popular and widely used for recording broadcasted TV programs. However, DVR users frequently forget to record or schedule the recording of particular TV programs. Further, users may not realize the program was broadcasted, or simply did not desire to record the show at the time. Because the DVR did not record the program, the DVR user has no way of viewing the program again unless it is re-broadcasted. Further, DVRs occasionally do not record a program that a user scheduled for recording because of a conflict or other reasons. Thus, a particular drawback to a conventional DVR is the inability to playback content that was not previously recorded by the DVR.
What is desired is to establish a communication system through which a DVR may receive previously broadcasted content from one or more DVRs across a network.